The machine knows what you are hiding: An automatic micro-expression recognition system

Abstract

Micro-expressions are one of the most important behavioral clues for lie and dangerous demeanor detections. However, it is difficult for humans to detect micro-expressions. In this paper, a new approach for automatic micro-expression recognition is presented. The system is fully automatic and operates in frame by frame manner. It automatically locates the face and extracts the features by using Gabor filters. GentleSVM is then employed to identify micro-expressions. As for spotting, the system obtained 95.83% accuracy. As for recognition, the system showed 85.42% accuracy which was higher than the performance of trained human subjects. To further improve the performance, a more representative training set, a more sophisticated testing bed, and an accurate image alignment method should be focused in future research. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.